‘Genius in a Bottle’ Prompted Writing Challenge
A Quandary by the Sea
GiaB writing prompt #2–4
Sea meets sand and feet. Paradise is much too nice a place to space out.
I live in a city that is one of the world’s renowned ‘beach cities’. A major city in a country ‘girt by sea’. By rights, I should really be permanently encrusted in sand and salt but sadly, as is often the way, life keeps me just occupied enough for me to blasphemously overlook the copious blessings thrust upon me to be a citizen of a country like Australia.
For a foreigner considering the beaches of Australia, much is made of the circling death machines that supposedly stalk the waters around my country. If reputation is to be believed, they are just salivating through crooked shards of dentition, hungry for human murder. Apparently, they are queueing in an orderly fashion to ravenously sever any body part that I have the utter gall of dipping beneath the water’s surface.
Not a lot is made of the fact that our beaches are lined by some of the most sophisticated beach barrier devices and bather protection systems. Not much is made of the fact that we have some of the best trained lifeguards, beach personnel, marine and air surveillance, and emergency response systems in the entire world. And virtually nothing is made of the fact that these animals (no more, nor less) simply perform the basic biological functions of their existence quite a way away from where any rule-abiding beach-goers enjoy their aquatic frivolity. They do so with absolutely no conception of the uniquely human practice of homicide. And after millions of years of their existence, this has not changed.
The rules of the beaches require one thing from the frequenting population. To enjoy this unique and attractive natural feature within the boundaries that are cleared and maintained by the sophisticated protective measures put in place for our safety. When we venture outside those areas we are assuming the risks of encountering marine life in their home. While almost all of those engagements occur peacefully unbeknownst to the bather, one cannot expect the guarantee of distance between two species when we throw caution and pragmatism to the wind in a habitat that is not our own.
For those that agree to pay heed to the rules, that admission fee permits us to leave the world behind and enjoy a most blissful, natural environment. Stone and shells, finely milled into golden powder by millions of years of soft grinding from tidal movements, pamper our toes and tired feet as we walk. The loose material invaginates around us, subtly cradling and moulding to bodies of all shapes and sizes. The sand is non-discriminatory and offers constant approval and encouragement to all.
When that dry and warm microdermabrasion has been enjoyed, we can head towards the blue expanse and cool off in warm waters, pulsing with rippling energy. The ocean gently nuzzles around all of us providing a cooling skin cleanse and instantly connecting us with Earth’s largest natural feature.
The weightlessness suspending our submerged bodies, and the cheeky tickling by floating foam smelling of salt and sea is more profound than any artificial spa session we could book from expensive providers. In those waters we need not time our sessions by the hour, or the dollar, but purely by our sense of pleasure and abandon.
If we desire the firmness of the earth beneath our feet, we can emerge once more in the evolution of our species, out of the cradle from whence we came. We can lie down and let our universal solar mother air dry us in the most maternally intimate way, since our human mothers wrapped towels around our tiny nakedness after bathing.
The experiential sublimation of time at the beach cannot be adequately conveyed in words. Thankfully so. There should not be a reason at all for why one would not want to partake of such a moment of bliss, and the attempt to provide a written description to replace the actual experience is a sacrilegious pursuit.
Of all the ways our species explores to get out of our head for a therapeutic time, none is more organic than submitting ourselves to nature in this way and letting her overload our senses with the kind of nurture that only the Earth knows of to give us.
The irony is, why would one want to leave their head when immersed in such boundless pleasure?
The Challenge
We invite writers to produce a piece of poetry, fiction or non-fiction on the theme of The Beach.
This prompt will close on 13th October, 2021 at 9:00AM PST/PDT. At which time, the next prompt will be released.
The Guidelines
We cannot publish pieces or reward writers who self publish or publish at another publication, so those pieces have to remain external to the challenge. Only pieces submitted to Genius in a Bottle will be considered for the challenge. If inviting other writers from outside the publication, please ensure they are aware of this.
Poetry is to be limited to 30 lines but can be in any style. Fiction and non-fiction submissions are to be capped at 750 words.
Please refer to the prompt in the subtitle. Feel free to copy this as a template: GiaB prompt # [insert prompt number and theme here].
When submitting, please ensure that one of the 5 tags is GiaBprompt. Please ensure a second tag is Poetry, fiction, or non-fiction, as appropriate.
We would like to become exposed to writers and pieces that you have enjoyed in all of Medium. Please tag up to ten writers whose pieces you have enjoyed recently, or who you feel may enjoy participating in this challenge.
For further information pertaining to the challenge, please refer to the rules and guidelines.
And away we go. We look forward to enjoying the paradise of the written word with you all.
Victor Sarkin
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